


Girl's Night

by goldenwolfrose



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drabble, F/F, Ficlet, RedBeauty, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 10:19:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3171248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenwolfrose/pseuds/goldenwolfrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a random series of events and the song "Jenny" by Studio Killers. </p>
<p>The story of Girl's Night and how Ruby fell in love with Belle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girl's Night

**Author's Note:**

> A/N- Unedited and unbeta'd. Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors. 
> 
> I may decide at some point to write Belle's side of the same events. And may decide to continue on after the end. I'm not sure.  
> Positive comments are love!

_“I wanna ruin our friendship_  
I don't know how to say this  
'Cause you're really my dearest friend”  
<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/studiokillers/jenny.html>  
“Jenny” by Studio Killers

*********************************************************************************************************************

“Ruby you need to tell her, she’s getting married this afternoon.” Snow chided her over breakfast.

Ruby pushed her eggs back and forth across her plate her fork scratching the plate as she went. Mumbling quietly, “I can’t Snow. She’s my best friend this will ruin everything.”

Sipping her hot chocolate slowly Snow wonders what advice would best help her oldest friend, “Ruby she deserves to know how you feel.”

Ruby drops her fork on the plate with a sad clink, the memories of the last year running through her mind. Girl’s night had become somewhat of a weekly tradition since Belle managed to suggest it to Gus. It had been innocent enough at the beginning.

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Belle showed up that first night with a stack of her favorite books and little else, anxious to share her favorite story. It wasn’t what Ruby generally considered a usual girl’s night. But she had spent enough nights at the Rabbit’s Hole that she wanted to try something new. The pair of them snuck down to the Diner and grabbed sodas and ice cream before going back to Ruby’s room. Ruby listened intently as Belle read to her in the most fascinating and engaged tone. When Belle had finished the story they got to talking, sharing their adventures from Fairytaleland. With the sun rising and Ruby cursing how late it had gotten they separated with a friendly hug and a promise to do it again next week. 

The next week Ruby had showed up at the library with a stack of DVD’s and some food from Granny’s. Belle was still organizing when Ruby got there so she offered to help some before they watched the movies. The pair fell into a comfortable silence finishing out the aisle that Belle had been on, Ruby occasionally lamenting the lack of books in the old land and that the library had been closed for so long. With the last book in that row safely placed away the pair went up to the apartment and started in on dinner and the first movie.  Somewhere in the middle of The Star Wars Trilogy (the original set of course) they had both fallen asleep. And when Ruby woke the next morning sun shining through the windows, there was a sleeping Belle nestled against her arm. It was the first time Ruby realized she may be in trouble.

The pattern continued week after week, sometimes they ended up at Ruby’s sometimes in the apartment above the library. Belle always shared a favorite book and Ruby was more than happy to catch Belle up on all the ‘classic’ movies she had missed out on. Sometimes they say good bye with a hug sometimes they fell asleep. The nights became a regular thing even as Belle started seeing Mr. Gold and that relationship blossomed.

Ruby listened when Belle would talk about her hopes and dreams and how she wished she could explore beyond Storybrooke. Ruby even listened as Belle would talk about her dates with Mr. Gold and smiled in the right places when Belle needed encouragement. At first Ruby tried telling herself the reason she felt so weird listening to Belle’s stories about Rumpelstiltskin and Mr. Gold was because of all the things he had done. That she was just prejudice because of the way he treated Granny and the things he had done in the old world. Mostly that the man she knew wasn’t the same man Belle was dating. It worked for a time but as their girl’s nights continued on Ruby knew that was not the whole reason for her feelings.

The last girl’s night before Christmas had fallen to Ruby and she wanted Belle’s Christmas to special. She knew she couldn’t match whatever Mr. Gold would inevitably do for Belle but she wanted her friend to have something special. Ruby had made sure that Belle would be busy all morning and she snuck into the library and upstairs to the apartment while Belle was away. Ruby put up a tree and hung Christmas lights and left a small box wrapped in red paper underneath the tree. When Belle got home Ruby was hanging the last decoration, the movie for the night already paused at the beginning and pizza on its way. A teary eyed Belle hugged her, now best friend and Ruby had to fight herself from happily inhaling Belle’s perfume, her wolf senses making that extra difficult. They collapsed on to the floor and watched Ruby’s choice of movie, Love Actually. Ruby told Belle it was just a traditional holiday movie but Ruby knew she had chosen it for other reasons, she could have easily picked “White Christmas” or “It’s A Wonderful Life”. As the credits rolled Ruby moved to the tree and brought over her present for Belle. Handing the red box over to Belle, a light blush on her cheeks, “I got you a little something for Christmas” she had said. Internally she wished she could have said so much more- ‘I like you’ for starters, but that was all she could say. Belle opened the present with the joy of a child, apologizing that she hadn’t gotten anything for Ruby. With the lid off both women could see the necklace shining in the twinkle of the Christmas lights, a small gold heart attached to a shiny gold chain. Belle jumped off the floor and hugged Ruby like never before, thanking her over and over. When Ruby got home a little bit later, she slid her door closed and fell against it, sliding down to the floor grasping for her knees. She knew she was past liking Belle; she had fallen in love with her.

 Everyone gathered next week at Granny’s diner, even Regina came with Henry, to celebrate the New Year. For the town it was going to be the first real New Year’s since the curse had fallen and everyone greeted it with such excitement. Ruby was busy serving drinks and making sure there was food for everyone to enjoy so she had little time to notice Mr. Gold and Belle come in together, but she did notice. As the clock inched closer to midnight Ruby managed to sneak away and find herself some peace and quiet in the bathroom. She hoped that she would be able to hide away from everyone until they all had their New Year’s kisses, mostly she did not want to have to see Mr. Gold kiss Belle in public. She was quite thankful that Mr. Gold was a private person and she’d never seen him do more than hold her arm or peck her on the cheek. She heard everyone chanting the countdown from the dining room, as they inched closer to 0 the door to the bathroom opened. In walked Belle, a curious sad look on her face, in the background she heard the town count to 3 then 2 then 1 then Belle leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. She whispered “Happy New Year” as she pulled away and left Ruby alone in the bathroom once again. Later she found out that Mr. Gold proposed to Belle when he escorted her home. Ruby spent New Year’s Day crying in her room.

After the New Year the girls returned to their usual habit of meeting at each other’s places week after week sharing dinner and a movie or a story from Belle. Neither brought up the kiss in the bathroom at midnight and Ruby never mentioned the large shiny engagement ring on Belle’s finger. Ruby often noticed a gold chain around Belle’s neck but she could never see what the charm was so she assumed it was another gift from Mr. Gold instead of what it really was, Ruby’s Christmas present. They continued on in their weekly adventures ignoring the engagement and kiss until the end of February when Belle blurted out, “Be my maid of honor?”  Ruby was too shocked to do anything other than stutter out a yes, even though she could feel her heart breaking inside.

The weeks after that were busy with helping Belle plan her wedding and their girls nights went from weekly to once a month. Despite the lack of their usual weekly movie or reading night the girls saw each more than ever if that was really possible. There was always some wedding detail to be discussed or researched dresses invitations flowers the list seemed endless. Mr. Gold was happy to pay but rarely participated in any of the decision making arguing that it was a woman’s job and that he wanted Belle to have everything she had ever wanted. His lack of involvement only meant Belle sought out Ruby more and more as the wedding got closer and closer. Part of Ruby wanted Belle to be happy and to be with the man she had chosen. But far too often Ruby caught herself day dreaming that all of this was for their wedding and not Belle’s and Mr. Gold’s.

The weekend before the wedding Ruby had fulfilled one of the core duties of every maid of honor and had thrown Belle her bridal shower. All the women of Storybrooke showed up at Regina’s house and celebrated with Belle. No matter how the people of the town felt about Regina or Mr. Gold, everyone had grown to love Belle as much as Ruby had, and this was their way of showing her. There was food and games and Belle even managed to look beautiful in her toilet paper wedding dress. Mostly there had been a lot of drinking and far too many knowing glances from Granny and Snow. That had been the first time Snow had tried to talk Ruby into telling Belle how she felt. It ended poorly as Ruby had stormed out of the house and found herself in the woods the next morning nursing the worst hangover she could remember.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now here they were again just like the morning after the Bridal shower with Snow trying to convince Ruby to tell Belle the truth and Ruby trying to ignore the pounding in her head from another nights’ heavy drinking.

Ruby’s face fell into her hands, a defeated sigh escaping her lips, “Snow….she’ll say no.”

Snow turned in her chair towards Ruby, lifting Ruby’s face out of her hands, “Ruby you can’t stand up there and watch her marry Mr. Gold without this breaking your heart. Go tell her right now how you feel.” Snow reaches out and pushes Ruby out of the chair, “GO!”

Ruby’s feet absentmindedly lead her out the door of the diner and across the street so that she finds herself in front of the library without even meaning to really end up there. She looks at the reflection in the window and starts brushing her hair down trying to tame the mess that she was left with after last night. It’s at this moment that she really wishes Snow would have at least given her a few minutes to brush her teeth wash her face or at least change her shirt. With a last brush through her hair she reaches for the door knob and opens the library doors. “Belle?” she calls into the large room quietly, hoping that maybe she won’t be heard and can go back to her room and hide until it’s all over.

Ruby hears the muffled cries and rushes into the library tracking the sound calling out Belle’s name. She rounds the bend and finds Belle in the back of the library huddled in the corner, one arm around her legs another clutching a book. Ruby awkwardly stands there looking down at Belle, seeing the tear stains down her face and the blood shot eyes looking up at her full of pain and hurt. She had hoped Belle was crying because of something Mr. Gold had done, but as she stares into those gorgeous eyes she knows that the tears on Belle’s face are because of her.

“I’m sorry Belle!” it’s all she can muster before the tears start falling and Ruby and flops onto the floor next to Belle. Ruby tries to wipe away the tears with her elbow but fails miserably and ends up pulling down her shirt so it covers her hands. Drying away the tears she turns to look at Belle who is still clutching the book tightly to her chest.  Ruby takes a deep breath and knows she needs to just get it all out in one breath; otherwise she will fail at this again.

Looking directly into Belle’s eyes “IloveyouBelleandIdontwantyoutomarrymr.gold” she rambles out before staring at the floor certain she has ruined everything. The tears are already forming again and her breath is getting more and more anxious, when there is a gentle touch on her hand. It’s like a current shoots through her hand and up her arm and directly into her heart. She hesitates before looking over at the fingers that have rested on her hand and following them up the arm to the face they are attached to. Part of her is certain that she will find a look of hurt and disgust and the loss of her best friend and love. But there is a certain hope that the touch has sent through her and it isn’t until her eyes finally reach the smile on Belle’s face that she knows something right has happened.

There is a hopeful smile traced with a bit of amusement and annoyance on Belle’s face, “It took you long enough Ruby Lucas! Were you planning on waiting till I was going to say “I DO”?” She says it all with a relieved look washing over her and she reaches out to hug Ruby.

They hug tightly Belle fitting into the little space under Ruby’s chin just like that first night when Ruby knew she was heading down a dangerous road. It isn’t until Ruby starts petting Belle’s arm, something she had wanted to do for so long now, and runs into the book still clutched against Belle’s stomach that she asks what book that is.

Belle’s eyes flutter down to the floor a blush rising on her cheeks, “It’s the book I read to you on our first date.”


End file.
